CASSIE MacDUFF: Perris Valley Line offers not only a smooth ride, but sightseeing, too

Chatting with friends, reading or watching the scenery make riding Metrolink's new Perris Valley line a good alternative to freeway commuting. Legislative staffers Cesar Gomez, Kierra Paul, LaShe Rodriguez and Tyler Madary shared a booth on first official ride Wednesday.

The new Metrolink line between Riverside and Perris passes through what I think must be one of the prettiest stretches in the entire passenger rail system.

On the rollout tour for media and elected officials Wednesday, the train left the Hunter Park station headed south, hugging the edge of Box Springs Mountain, around graceful curves through rocky hillsides above quiet neighborhoods around UCR.

It’s a slight uphill grade, although you’d never know it from how smoothly the train makes its way for Moreno Valley and March Air Reserve Base, the next station south of Hunter Park.

In one stretch, the route runs beside a wooded creekbed between the tracks and the 60/215, a leafy habitat that probably goes unnoticed by the thousands of motorists white-knuckling the curving freeway amid big rigs and speeding drivers.

That’s one attraction of passenger rail: You can sightsee on your commute.

The 24-mile, $248.5 million Perris Valley line is the first addition to the Metrolink system since 1994.

South of Box Springs Mountain, the tracks parallel I-215, where the trains will become their own advertisement for passenger rail, speeding swiftly past stop-and-go rush-hour traffic.

If that isn’t enticement enough to get motorists out of their cars, maybe the introductory fare of $10 round-trip within Riverside County will be.

The fare, which will be available for six months, will get you anywhere between south Perris and Corona in south Riverside County, and points in between in Riverside.

If you want to venture outside Riverside County, the Perris Valley line continues past Corona to Placentia, Fullerton, Buena Park and Norwalk, to downtown L.A.’s Union Station.

There’s also a discount of 10 percent on the usual daily or monthly fare, if you start your trip at one of the Perris Valley line stations to travel outside RivCo.

I sat next to Perris Mayor Daryl R. Busch from Moreno Valley station to his city, where he proudly pointed out the Spanish-style City Hall complex and the city limits south of Nuevo Road.

The Riverside County Transportation Commission, of which Busch is a member, bought land for a Calico station to meet future demand, Busch told me.

RCTC also bought enough land around each of the first four stations to expand parking when needed, RCTC chief Anne Mayer told me.

Most of the lots have about 420 spaces. The terminus in south Perris has 526. That station is expected to draw passengers from Hemet and San Jacinto as well as the immediate Perris area, Mayer said.

RCTC expects the new service to attract 4,300 new passengers. But it won’t happen overnight. Service always takes some time to ramp up, she said.

Before the addition of the four new stations, the 91 line from Riverside to Fullerton to L.A. carried 66,607 passengers in April, the most recent month for which figures were available.

The Riverside line, through Pedley, Ontario and Pomona to Union Station, carried 93,084 in April.

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